A recovery in the big banks helped the share market recoup most of yesterday's losses.
The ASX 200 rallied 18 points or 0.3% to 6022, trimming the index's loss for the week to 11 points. The financials sector bounced 0.9% from yesterday's one-month closing low. Also strong were health stocks +0.8%, metals & mining +0.5% and materials +0.3%. The IT sector slid 1.2%, telecoms 0.7% and gold 0.7%.
The local market started the session with few leads, following a public holiday in the US overnight. S&P 500 futures were this morning near neutral at +0.7 points or +0.03%. A downbeat morning in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite barely changed at +0.01%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng off 0.4% and Japan's Nikkei down 1.05%.
Crude oil futures were lately down $1.02 or 1.5% at US$66.86 a barrel. Gold futures were off $5.20 or 0.4% at US$1,303.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.3 US cents.
The activity on these daytrading threads is a fair barometer of market interest. Not sure I can recall a quieter time around here. Crickets and tumbleweed. If you're looking for positives, at least there was a little interest in today's floats - GAL and PYG. I let a couple of half-chances pass in the first half hour and soon came to regret that - AAJ, MWR, S66. Not had a whisper since.
